Word spread quickly Saturday on the grounds of the US Open that Carlos Alcaraz had cut his training session short because of a turned ankle. Would the freak accident jeopardise his US Open hopes?

Alcaraz put those concerns to bed quickly later in the day during his pre-tournament press conference.

“I wasn’t worried at all for my US Open participation. Obviously I was angry because I don’t want to stop the practice, just to respect [Francisco] Cerundolo, as well. I don’t want to stop any practice.

I want to practise, I want to get better, I want to get ready for the tournament,” Alcaraz said.

“But honestly with the ankle, I wasn’t worried about that.

So I’m sure that tomorrow or in two days I’m going to be at my 100 per cent, for sure. It’s about time.”

I didn’t feel comfortable enough to keep practising just in case if everything is going to be worse,” Alcaraz said.

“But after a few hours later, I’m still feeling good, my feet, so tomorrow I will try to be practising again 100 per cent without thinking about it. But today I’ll take care [of] it.”

The third seed has happy memories in New York, where he claimed his first major title in 2022. That year, by lifting the trophy, he became the youngest World No. 1 in the history of the PIF ATP Rankings.

Now Alcaraz is a four-time Grand Slam champion who this year has emerged victorious at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

The only blemish for him in recent months was at the Paris Olympics, where the 21-year-old suffered a devastating defeat in the gold-medal match to Novak Djokovic.

“This was one of the most important finals of my career, of my life,” Alcaraz said.

“I know that the Olympic Games is every four years, so I don’t know if I’m going to have another chance to win the gold.

I’m going to fight for it, for sure, the next Olympics Games.

But it was a difficult moment to deal for me, losing the gold medal in a really close match that I had opportunities.”